Cons:

Street Fighter IV fans be advised: Marvel vs. Capcom 2, produced by the same company, is about as far removed from that game as you could conceivably get and still be in the same genre. Rather than focusing on timing and control of space, as in SF4, MvC2 is an unlikely blend of macro (there are 50+ characters to choose from, with three on a "tag team" per fight) and micro (there are only four attack buttons: light/heavy punch and kick) elements that somehow come together to form a marvelously entertaining whole.

What makes it all work so well? It could be the almost ludicrously large and variegated cast of characters, including such luminaries as "Amingo," who appears to be some form of sentient cactus wearing a sombrero, and Shuma-Gorath, the spectacular, tentacular, one-eyed demon from Doctor Strange. Don't worry, though: Ryu, Morrigan, Spidey, Juggs, and all the other standbys are also available.

Still, don't expect even the least fantastical characters to play like you're accustomed to in a "traditional" fighting game. Battles in MvC2 revolve primarily around two gameplay concepts. The first is combos, particularly air combos (that is, combinations of hits strung together while the player and/or their opponent are in the air). These are critical for building up the power meter for super moves, and they frequently feature the player calling in one or more tag-team mates from off-screen to perform "assist" moves. Because of the relatively simplistic controls, combos can be strung together quite easily (this is especially true of certain "cheese" characters like Spiderman, who have very simple and powerful basic combo strings), which is tremendously satisfying -- as long as you're the one doing the comboing.

The second major gameplay concept that drives MvC2 is the ability to force your opponent to bring one of their off-screen fighters into the fray. Because all fights are between teams of three characters (with certain bonuses for "theme" teams like all Street Fighter or all X-Men), and because characters can heal some of the damage they've taken by waiting off-screen, expert players can use the tag-team element to withstand much more punishment than they would otherwise be able to. In order to combat such exploitative switcheroo tactics, MvC2 introduces a move called the "snapback." A snapback uses one level of a player's power meter (all characters share a single power meter, regardless of who is active and who is out) and allows the character to knock their current opponent out of the match with a normal attack, as long as it's not blocked. This tactic is tremendously useful for forcing weaker or poorly matched characters to face your stronger ones, and is utterly critical to success at the game.

Of course, the basic gameplay of any fighting game eventually transcends any particular strategy and just becomes about kicking the other player's ass. MvC2 thankfully allows you to do this easily by connecting with opponents over XBLA or PSN... just don't expect everyone to be as new as you. A lot of the people who've picked this title up on XBLA have apparently been playing since its original arcade release a decade ago, making it so I was wearing my ass for a hat for at least the first two hours of online play. Eventually I got the hang of it, but a word of warning: The pace of the matches floats somewhere between tweeker-just-after-a-fix and F-22 on afterburners, so if you're into biding your time and turtling, look elsewhere.

Apart from matters of taste, though, there's little to detract from the sheer, arcade-style fun of MvC2's gameplay. The graphics have been revamped to support widescreen and crisper, smoother sprites, although everything still looks very nineties compared with, say, SF4. Previous versions' bugs and exploits -- like the game-breaking Gambit infinite-height wall jump, and most sprite-clipping errors -- have been largely addressed, although harmless classics like the infamous Juggernaut glitch are still around (I'll let you figure it out for yourself).

My only serious complaint is that the music utterly sucks in every way and is an affront to mankind that should be excised from the universe by the vengeful spirits of J.S. Bach, Duke Ellington and Hank Williams. Actually, that would be a pretty awesome squad for Marvel vs. Capcom vs. Music History 101 All Stars! The good news here is that Capcom promises to release new soundtracks for the game as additional content somewhere down the road. The better news is that if you have a mute button and a stereo of some sort you can implement your own "custom soundtrack" right now. I suggest you do so before the character-select screen's BGM "takes you for a ride" into Cthulhu worship.